Holocaust Oral History Documentaries Acquired by Yeshiva University Archives

A recent addition to the Holocaust-related materials in the Yeshiva University Archives is a collection of student recordings by participants in the educational oral history documentation project Names, Not Numbers. Created in 2004 by Tova Fish-Rosenberg, a former college lecturer and Jewish Day School principal, the project teaches the Holocaust using interviewing techniques, research methods, documentary film tools and editing skills developed by students in creating hour-long taped interviews with either Holocaust survivors or World War II veterans.  Throughout, the students work with a filmmaker, history teachers and professional journalists or newspaper editors.  The interviews are edited and combined into documentary films, which will augment the personal narratives of the Holocaust already held by the Archives.  Additionally, the filmmaker tapes the participants during the process and produces mini-documentaries entitled Names, Not Numbers: A Movie in the Making, which are also part of the Archives’ collection and of interest to scholars researching the study and teaching of the Holocaust.

Interviewees have included Anti-Defamation League National Director Abraham Foxman, educators/writers Yaffa Eliach and Moshe Avital, and Yeshiva University Chancellor Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm.  Program participants have included Holocaust scholar Michael Berenbaum, Jewish Week publisher Gary Rosenblatt, and New York Times reporter Joseph Berger.

The project has been used at various Jewish day schools in the United States and Canada.  Yeshiva University High Schools have participated in it since 2007.

For more information about this or other collections in the Yeshiva University Archives, email archives@yu.edu or call (212) 960-5451.

Submitted by Deena Schwimmer, Archivist.